From the AP today, this disturbing news which is especially pertinent to the baby boomers.
Only 2 percent of graduating medical students say they plan to work in primary care internal medicine, raising worries about a looming shortage of the first-stop doctors who used to be the backbone of the American medical system.
The results of a new survey being published Wednesday suggest more medical students, many of them saddled with debt, are opting for more lucrative specialties.
Just 2 percent of nearly 1,200 fourth-year students surveyed planned to work in primary care internal medicine, according to results published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In a similar survey in 1990, the figure was 9 percent.
Paperwork, the demands of the chronically sick and the need to bring work home are among the factors pushing young doctors away from careers in primary care, the survey found.
This is scary.
@Laoch – it is especially when you take into account the first wave of the nation’s 78 million baby boomers turn 65 in 2011. Hate to think of it when I turn 65 and that’s not for another 11 years.
I refuse to think about it. There are just too many scary thangs out there. I think of nice things like that picture of… ;o)